Wonderwall
by Theabominablesnowman
Summary: Anemone Strider arrives late onto the scene, and she soon finds her fellow community service workers are all hiding something from her. Rated M because I'm not sure how far I'm going to go. Simon/OC.


Anemone's gaze landed on a boy in a bright orange jumpsuit with the words "Community Payback" written in big bold capital letters at the back. She couldn't take her eyes away from him, he seemed so small, shy and nervous. As if just being out in the open was too intimidating for him.

A boy in his group with brown curly hair noticed her in obvious interest in the meek boy beside him and elbowed him roughly. He probably told him that she was staring, though from the odd expression he used when he told him told her he put it as an exaggerated spectacle.

His remark had worked, the one she has been staring at slowly turned as if afraid of what he'd find and saw her. After making eye contact, that didn't even last a minute he looked away to her disappointment.

She smirked and began to stride over confidently towards them, her bright red stilettos clicking against the pavement as she walked over. Was he ever in for a surprise.

When she had finally reached him she tapped his shoulder lightly, doing her best not to scare him away.

It didn't work. He looked at her, his blue eyes went wide. She smiled pleasantly at him trying to look friendly and make him calm down. You'd have thought by the way she was looking at him she wanted to gobble him up.

"I-is there anything I can help you with?" he asked her.

The curly haired guy came up with something clever before she could even answer. "Yeah, Barry she wants to take you out for a little go. She thought she saw a mouse and was ready to jump that tail." he said beginning to pelvic thrust and groan.

Her smile never faltered, she didn't even blink. A part of her thought what he said was humorous but another part of her wanted to roll her eyes at how predictable that was. She was used to the joker's by now, okay this one was much more vulgar than most she met; but there was a first time for everything.

She shook her head. "Actually I was wondering if he could show me where I'm supposed to get changed."

He seemed like he didn't believe her, that she was putting him in the spotlight and forcing him out of the norm. She noticed him squirm slightly. He would have to get used to it. She was his new criminal companion.

The curly haired kid grinned, "Huh, who would have figured us dogs would get thrown a bone. Eh weird kid?" he laughed nudging him.

"So will you take me?" she asked him again. "I'm already late and I don't want to get into bigger trouble than I'm already in." she told him hoping to help him make his decision faster.

He nodded, a silent way of saying that makes sense. "Alright, I'll show you." he said quietly, his voice was so soft it was barely above a whisper. He started to lead the way, moving to the building. Curly was following them, he was probably interested because she was new. Everybody liked shiny new toys.

When they reached the changing room, she removed an identical orange jumpsuit she received earlier that week when her community service had been determined.

He started to head for the door, but she held up her hand. "I'll be done in a sec'. Please wait for me." she pleaded. Curly smiled he wasn't going to leave, but at least now he had an excuse to say he was welcomed and wasn't just peeping. To her dismay he nodded once again, without giving her a proper answer.

That unnerved her. She removed her stilettos and black tights, the problem was the short white dress with red polka dots she was wearing she couldn't reach the zipper at the back and didn't want to lose her grace in front of them.

"Excuse me, can you please do me a wee little favour and unzip me please?" she asked him, her tone a tad begging.

She could have swore his cheeks got redder, but Curly jumped at the chance while he hesitated. "I would be delighted to my dear!" He said enthusiastically.

Before he could even take a step Anemone hurriedly undid it herself. The dress that was once tight against her body now slid easily down to the floor. She stepped over the now floppy cloth and held out a hand. "Pass me the suit please?" she asked.

For a moment all he did was stare. Here she was in front of him in her undergarments, her black lacey thong accentuating her tiny waist and black bra with a small pink silk ribbon in the middle practically demanding him to look at her tits.

"Never mind I can get it." she mumbled, strutting past him and grabbed the orange jumpsuit. On her way back to her locker she stopped close to the small boy. Inches apart from him. Okay, maybe a small part of her enjoyed intimidating him.

"Next time a simple no would do." she informed him.

"...You're really short without heels." Was his answer. She had a strong urge to roll her eyes at him but resisted the temptation. So what if she was short than him without them, and she had to raise her head when she spoke to him. It didn't bother her one bit...

Anemone threw the unflattering jumpsuit on and zipped it up, hiding her previously exposed body.

This whole time she'd been ignoring Curly but now she felt sort of wrong to do it. She turned toward him but immediately regretted her decision when she had. He was just grinning at her like a young boy. "That's a cute little beauty mark on your bottom shorty." he chuckled.

"Thanks. You can call me Nene." she giggled, and winked at him. Which he took well, he offered his hand and she shook it gently.

"Nathan." he replied enthusiastically. "And that over there is weird kid." he added. Her eyes landed on him and lingered there. "Nice to meet you, Nathan and "weird kid." she smiled. Her eyes rested on the boy who had caught her attention though. She felt guilty for using his label to address him... It wasn't right, he was a person. Contrary to what others might believe.

"Weird kid, is going to show me where the probation working is now so we'll catch up with you later." Anemone automatically decided for them.

Nathan was confused but didn't seem to get that she'd blown him off and just walked away with a, "See you later!"

"Weird kid" began to take Anemone to the probation worker. Suddenly he stopped abruptly and told her. "I have a name you know..." Apparently it had bother him more then he let on. Which was understandable, no one liked to be labelled and have a stereotyped imposed upon them.

Despite being a little annoyed at him she grinned. At least he was talking to her now.

"Oh really? What is it?"

He smiled then, small but pleased. "Simon."

"My apologies, nice to _meet _you Simon." Anemone said holding out her hand to him he shook it, she hoped he was a bit more comfortable with her than before.

"Did you actually want to talk to the probation worker?" he asked her.

"No..." She admitted honestly. "I just wanted to get a chance to talk with you alone... sorry that must sound really bad considering I don't even know you." Anemone apologized in chagrin, she felt her cheeks getting hot.

Simon shook his head, "I think it's kind of nice,that you went through all that trouble just to talk to me." He looked down, " No one ever does that." He wasn't proud of it that was for sure, she could tell.

Her smile widened. "Well I just did." Anemone winked at him and walked to the doors. Before she went any further, she stopped and looked back at him. "I just realized I have no idea what we are doing."

Simon caught up with her while she waited, she took a minute to just look at him. She could tell he was a nice guy, his silence probably gave other the impression that he was creepy but she felt it was just shyness. He noticed her blatant shameless way of watching him, and admiring his features. Though he probably would never have the admiring she was doing."Why are you looking at me?" he wondered, nervously glancing at her.

Anemone just shook her head. "No reason. I was just thinking, that's all." she said with a distant voice as if she was living somewhere far away and wasn't really standing there with him.

They caught sight of their fellow juvenile delinquents and she gave a tiny wave. They all looked partially confused by her sudden appearance. It was assumed they had met everyone who would join their group, and truth be told she didn't look like your typical ASBO .It might have been her tiny body or the fact that she smiled and walked up to them more like a new kid doing her best to make friends at a new school rather then do community service with others who were forced to like her.

"Ahh there she is now! Hey shorty come meet the gang." Nathan called to Anemone, waving her over.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Nene." Anemone gave them her best smile, dimples and all.

"Are you sure you belong here princess?" One girl asked her, she gave her the once over and determined Anemone was a fish out of water. "What is an all American kid like you doing community service for?" she demanded. The diva really did not believe she belonged with them.

She would have been surprised what had gotten her this sentence... Of course she would never tell them the truth. No one would have pegged her for prostitution. She opened her mouth to make up a lie but the chav with the long ponytail had somehow beaten her to it.

"You was out selling yourself?" she said in bewilderment, and looked at her again as if she was really seeing herself for the first time.

Anemone paled and shook her head. "Of course not!" she denied it strongly; not just to them but to herself. She wasn't that sort of person. She continued to assure herself that over and over until she had calmed down. It was too late now to redeem herself by the time she had regained her composure though.

They all really looked at her now, her friendly sweet innocent facade had been stripped away all by one sentence. 'How did she even know?' she wondered skeptically looking in her direction.

Anemone smiled once again but Nathan had cut her off. " So does that mean for a few pounds I could have a go?" he inquired trying to break the tension, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

"I am not a whore! Why are you all so certain I am just because she said I was!" Anemone screamed and demanded them, her face was turning red from losing her temper.

When Anemone pointed that out they all got quiet. "All I did was...vandalize a building." she lied, it was thought of slowly too but hopefully they would go for it.

The tall boy raised his hand slightly. " I'm Curtis." Looks like the rest of the introductions were on the way. Perhaps this was his way of making amends for his skepticism earlier.

The chav looked uncomfortable and had the courtesy to be embarrassed. "Name's Kelly."

Dive rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Alisha."

"And you've already met our mental case." Nathan snickered, looking at Simon who's eyes darted to the floor.

She glared at him, "Don't say that about him. His name is Simon by the way." she said, doing a poor job of defending him.

"Aww look at shorty all sweet on him." he cooed, laughing afterwards.

Anemone rolled her eyes but before she could retort they heard someone clapping from behind her and Simon. They both spun to see what had caused that noise and it was a woman with long brown hair, who she presumed to be the probation worker.

"Alright everyone time to get to work. No more chatting." she ordered them. Her eyes locked on Anemone for a few minutes and instantly her face became solemn. "Ahh Anemone I see you've arrived and found everyone okay. I wish you would have come and see me." she informed her. Which sounded more to her like, 'You have no idea what you are doing. You should have come found me.'

"I'm sorry m'am." she apologized, looking down. Not very sorry at all.

"Sally." she corrected her gently.

"Please just call me Nene." she told her, nervously sweeping a loose blond strand of hair behind her ear.

From the way Sally spoke to her and looked at her she could tell she had been told what Anemone was here for. She didn't want to be pitied. Not by anyone, especially her probation worker.

They both took a minute to study each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. It was getting a bit awkward so Nathan spoke up.

"Shouldn't we get to work? That is unless you ladies want to have a little girl on girl time." he grinned looking from one girl to the other for agreement. Sally scowled at Nathan and Anemone just glared. She was however thankful for the quick save.

Sally finally assigned them their task it wasn't too complicated, just to clean floors of the community centre. Everyone assembled the mops and filled the buckets with soapy water. There weren't enough buckets so they had to partner up.

Alisha and Curtis seemed to have something going on, that much was obvious she could see. So they stuck together. Anemone didn't know what to expect from Nathan so she promptly sought out Simon.

" Mind sharing with me?" she requested, smiling innocently at him.

Simon smiled back and nodded, "Love to."

Anemone grabbed their bucket, and they headed off to a deserted hallway that wasn't occupied. She carefully placed the bucket on the ground , dipped her mope in it, and let it fall to the ground making swishing motions.

Simon manged to do the same, they proceed in silence for what felt like fifteen minutes but when she glanced at Simon he seemed content with how they were doing things. She however wasn't satisfied so she tried to strike up conversation.

"What did you do to get stuck here?" she asked with genuine curiosity. Anemone honestly wouldn't peg Simon as a trouble maker but then again no one had expected her for what she had done either. That wasn't completely true actually... One person had.

" I tried to burn someone's house down." He confessed with downcast eyes, she studied him to see if he was telling the truth. He certainly had no reason to lie. What she had done was much more shameful then him, but that all depends on who you asked.

He observed her reaction, calmly waiting for her response.

"Why did you want to burn their house down?" was her follow up. Raising a brow.

He quickly diverted his eyes, "Is it true that you're here for prostitution?" he changed the subject. She didn't want to talk about herself.

"No," Anemone lied.

Simon watched her as she disregarded his question and pretended he hadn't asked her that. She focused on work, he was about to tell her something; when Nathan appeared out of thin air sliding on the wet floor them and landing at her feet.

"Up for some fun shorty?" he asked. Anemone was willing to do anything to get her out of this awkward situation. "Always," she accepted his challenge she preferred something a little dangerous or demeaning rather then the tension between her and Simon.

"Great!" he grinned broadly showing his enthusiasm. "Now take of your clothes." he said dead serious.

"I should have guessed it would be something perverted." she mumbled, shaking her head. "No Nathan, I refuse to get naked just for your pleasure. And where's Kelly?" Anemone wondered.

Nathan frowned. "You don't have to go full out your undies are enough; and she didn't want to join." he winced recalling her reply to his offer. Which was a smack to the head.

She stared at him and laughed. "Oh is that all? No problem." Anemone said surprised by agreeing to his ridiculous suggestion. She slowly pulled down the zipper attaining both Nathan and Simon's attention. She pealed off her orange layer and shook her hair. "So what are we going to do exactly that's so fun?"She asked, amusement dancing in her eyes. "Ah, and of course you're taking yours off too." Anemone told him, and without another word he removed his identical orange jumpsuit, correction identical except for the scratched out word "Pay" which he had so cleverly been replaced with "Blow."

She raised a brow at Simon but he averted her eyes as if they could shoot lasers beams right through him, "What are we doing Nathan?" She asked crossing my arms over her chest.

Nathan winked at her, "Well shorty we're going swimming."


End file.
